The Nuggets will sign the former Knick, beating Dallas out for the privilege to do so. The mid-level exception, which was turned down by Miami big man Udonis Haslem, was happily accepted by Harrington and buys the Nuggets a player with a career 14.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.

The Nuggets have to like the flexibility he gives them. Harrington can score from the starting lineup or off the bench, averaging 18.0 points and 6.3 rebounds as a starter and 17.6 points and 5.4 rebounds as a reserve last season. The Nuggets know his ability to heat up from personal experience. The 6-9, 250-pound forward averaged 32 points and 9.5 rebounds against the Nuggets off the bench in two games last season. One was a 41-point explosion in New York, which the Nuggets won anyway. The second, however, was a damaging home loss to the Knicks in March in which Harrington scored 23.

So in this case if you can’t stop him, sign him.

Harrington will likely find himself in the starting lineup at the start of the season with Kenyon Martin expected to be out while he continues to recover from knee surgery. And that’s actually very intriguing. Harrington gives the Nuggets a legit, consistent third-scorer. Don’t be surprised if he finishes second on the team in scoring to Carmelo Anthony. When Harrington heats up, he runs scorching hot – he scored 25 or more points 16 times last season, which included four games in the 30s and two games in the 40s. But he’ll also go cold; he had 12 games of single-digit scoring. He’ll turn in less than 10 points around two or three games a month.

But Harrington’s ability to fill it up from anywhere on the court will take some of the load off of Anthony, who saw double teams usually from the man guarding Martin. More notably, Harrington’s presence will allow point guard Chauncey Billups to pick and choose his spots more judiciously, and lifts the burden of having to produce points off of his shoulders. Billups can get back to running the team from a organizing and distribution standpoint and that should mean he’ll have stronger legs under him down the stretch of the season and into the playoffs. It will not, however, do anything major to help take the load off of Nene. Harrington is not a traditional post player so much as he is a new-school scorer, but his size will be helpful on some bigger opposing power forwards.

Harrington also may or may not also come with some headaches.

Harrington feuded with Golden State coach Don Nelson, and then navigated rough seas with Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni. The foundation of D’Antoni’s concerns about Harrington was too much one-on-one basketball – a familiar gripe to Nuggets fans who have witnessed head coach George Karl plead with his team to pass the ball more to varying degrees of results.

Harrington is a volume shooter who doesn’t necessarily hit for a high percentage, so he needs attempts to maximize his potential for success. He’s averaged 1,093 shots in the last five seasons, and in those years shot 44.3 percent from the field. Last season, Harrington shot 43 percent. His 1,030 shots last would have just missed being second on the Nuggets team. Anthony led the Nuggets in shot attempts with 1,502 and J.R. Smith had 1,033.

Calf, knee and shoulder injuries cost Harrington a number of games last season, but he’s usually pretty durable. He’s played at least 66 games in each of the last eight seasons, but regularly plays close to the full 82 games. And while he’s in no way a lockdown defender, he’s a defender with fast hands in the mold of Martin, so expect Harrington to be among the team’s leaders in steals. He is not a shot blocker. If Harrington is a success, it could make Martin expendable, or the Nuggets could opt to platoon the two in the starting lineup, which by default would also strengthen their bench.

In all, it’s a good pickup for a team looking to keep up with the rest of the rapidly-improving teams in the Northwest Division.